Contrasting slab decarbonation patterns control deep carbon cycling efficiency in hot vs. cold subduction zones
Hengrui Zhang, Yang Wang, Zhong-Hai Li, Taras V. Gerya, Hong-Yan Li, Shui-Jiong Wang, Xin Zhou, Yangfan Deng, Yu Wang, Jason P. Morgan · 2026
Read Contrasting slab decarbonation patterns control deep carbon cycling efficiency in hot vs. cold subduction zones by Hengrui Zhang, Yang Wang, Zhong-Hai Li, Taras V. Gerya, Hong-Yan Li, Shui-Jiong Wang, Xin Zhou, Yangfan Deng, Yu Wang, Jason P. Morgan (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13418749.txt.
Description
Hengrui Zhang and colleagues compare how two unlike subduction zones handle carbon carried down into the Earth. One site, Colombia, runs hot, while Tonga in the Pacific runs very cold. Sinking slabs drive deep carbon cycling, yet how well each zone frees that carbon has stayed in dispute. The team paired detailed heat and rock modeling with gas and chemistry data from volcanoes above each zone.
The hot zone freed more than 15 percent of its slab carbon within a fairly narrow depth band. Melting added a second release route on top of the main chemical one. The cold zone freed only about 1 percent, spread thinly across a much deeper span, mostly by slow dissolving. The contrast shows why some arcs return carbon to the air far faster than others.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Hengrui Zhang, Yang Wang, Zhong-Hai Li, Taras V. Gerya, Hong-Yan Li, Shui-Jiong Wang, Xin Zhou, Yangfan Deng, Yu Wang, Jason P. Morgan |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 54 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |